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The 2019 Yahoo Finance-supported EMpower Ethnic Minority Future Leaders list is out and a Saint Lucian is one of the 50 nominees.

He is Jonathan “JC” Charlery, a senior software engineer at Bloomberg LP, and a past student of St. Mary’s College in Saint Lucia.

EMpower’s website said the 50 nominees in the Ethnic Minority Future Leaders list are “inspirational people of colour who are not yet senior leaders in an organisation but are making a significant contribution to ethnic minority inclusion at work”.

Charlery, who is #14 on the list, is co-founder of Writing Legends, which according to EMpower’s website is “an organisation which helps advance youth from the West Indies by providing training, such as coding workshops, and access to global development and networking opportunities”.

According to a December 2018 press release, Writing Legends partnered with FLOW, the Curriculum and Materials Development Unit (CAMDU) in the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations, and Sustainable Development, and hosted Saint Lucia’s “first Christmas Coding Camp”. The five-day camp was held from December 17 at St. Mary’s College.

Participants at the coding camp in December 2018.

The release said the 16 young people, aged 10 to 15, who participated in the camp were introduced to the rudiments of programme design, computer programming, data types, variables, conditional logic, memory management, and the basics of app development for fixed and mobile devices. The participants were also exposed to careers and opportunities in information and communications technology.

Through Writing Legends, EMpower said Charlery “is working with other organisations to tackle the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.

EMpower added: “Jonathan joined Bloomberg in 2010 and is now a Senior Software Engineer and Tech Champ Lead who promotes developer best practices across the Engineering Department. In addition, he is an instrumental member of Bloomberg’s Diversity Drivers, a select group of engineers who collaborate on initiatives that foster a diverse and inclusive workplace. He also helps attract and retain diverse talent by mentoring new hires and frequently speaking on panels to inspire students of all ages and backgrounds to pursue careers in technology. Jonathan is a member of Bloomberg’s Black Professional Community, in which he introduces its members to available resources to help them advance and be open about their culture and heritage. He also helped organise a contingent of Black engineers who wanted to promote a “safe space” for technical, professional and social discussions. They represent the company at conferences and events, such as the annual National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Convention and tech meetups.”

To qualify for nomination to the Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists persons, according to EMpower “must be people of colour working in the UK, Ireland, Europe, USA or Canada. They must also be able to demonstrate how they have actively contributed beyond their everyday work to increasing ethnic minority inclusion. Those who are not yet senior leaders in their organisation (or leaders of smaller organisations) will be eligible for the Future Leaders category. Nominees can be any nationality but must be part of an ethnic minority group within the country they work”.